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My girlfriend took me to a club in her hometown in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Multiple times random people came over to shake my hand and congratulating me for - basica

by sly010 11y ago

My girlfriend took me to a club in her hometown in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Multiple times random people came over to shake my hand and congratulating me for - basically - being a foreigner. One guy told me "I will kill you", but then he told my girlfriend "Thats the only sentence I know in english and I don't know what does it mean".

voidlogic 11y ago
>"Thats the only sentence I know in english and I don't know what does it mean" I hope she told him... and his reaction?
javindo 11y ago
I had a very similar experience - I'm also quite fair due to Albinism which I think raised far more attention than the average white person over there! I had many people wanting to take their photograph with me, constant staring and quite a few girls approaching me on the street/subways/shops. One of the most endearing things was when somebody would try to test out their very limited knowledge of English on me at random, they'd often seem quite proud of themselves and I was always happy to oblige. (Incidentally my girlfriends home province is also Xinjiang!)
- dongchongyubing 11y ago
  I think you will have different experience in big city .
fatihdonmez 11y ago
As a foreigner in Nanjing, I always get similar reactions from people. Especially night clubs are very friendly, free drinks, priority for vip and etc.
- seanmcdirmid 11y ago
  Beijing here. No stares anymore, not for a long time.
  - jliechti1 11y ago
    But if you take a 2 hour train ride to Shijiazhuang, you'll get stares all day. :) And for those that don't know, it's not a small city (urban population: 2.7 million, metro population: 4.7 million). I had some young kids there tell me I was the first westerner they had ever seen.
    - yourapostasy 11y ago
      Not a small city by US/EU reckoning. There are 30+ cities in China with populations more than 2.7M in the urban area. That is an order of magnitude more than the US. The children in China grow up with a concept of scale that overshadows what we intuitively grasp in the US and EU (and most of the rest of the world, for that matter). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_China_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_China_by_popu... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by...
      - bzbarsky 11y ago
        Comparing the "urban area" numbers is a bit misleading because the structure of cities is so different in different places (even in the US, where for example Chicago officially annexed various suburbs over time while Boston did not). If you look at the metro area numbers, Shijiazhuang is 26th in China according to your first link, with about 4M in its metro area (assuming "Built-Up area" is the metro area, of course; it's hard to tell from this Wikipedia page). Tehre are 12 more cities with 3M+ in the built-up area. For the US there seem to be 10 urban areas that are at 4M or more (see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_areas> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_ar...). Obviously fewer than 26, but not an order of magnitude less. There are 14 urban areas with 3M or more people. More interesting would be to just flat-out compare list positions. #26 on the list of US cities by actual city population is Baltimore. On the urban area list it's San Antonio. Neither one is what one would consider small (nor large, of course).
        11y ago
morpheous 11y ago
This: "One guy told me "I will kill you", but then he told my girlfriend "Thats the only sentence I know in english and I don't know what does it mean"." ROFL. You made my day ! :)
PopsiclePete 11y ago
This reminds me of my time to the "Floating Markets" near Bangkok. Pure tourist trap. On one of the "islands", there's a group of Japanese (I think) tourists looking disinterested at various trinkets. My girlfriend and I instantly became the attraction. They approached us hurriedly, squeaking with excitement, took our pictures, had us pose for them, then they took turns posing with us, one by one or in groups while someone else was taking the picture and directing us. This went on for multiple rounds. It really, really made their day. To this day I'm not sure if they mistook us for celebrities or they were just excited to see white people in general. It was hilarious.

by sly010 11y ago

voidlogic 11y ago

>"Thats the only sentence I know in english and I don't know what does it mean" I hope she told him... and his reaction?

javindo 11y ago

I had a very similar experience - I'm also quite fair due to Albinism which I think raised far more attention than the average white person over there! I had many people wanting to take their photograph with me, constant staring and quite a few girls approaching me on the street/subways/shops. One of the most endearing things was when somebody would try to test out their very limited knowledge of English on me at random, they'd often seem quite proud of themselves and I was always happy to oblige. (Incidentally my girlfriends home province is also Xinjiang!)

dongchongyubing 11y ago
I think you will have different experience in big city .

fatihdonmez 11y ago

As a foreigner in Nanjing, I always get similar reactions from people. Especially night clubs are very friendly, free drinks, priority for vip and etc.

seanmcdirmid 11y ago
Beijing here. No stares anymore, not for a long time.
- jliechti1 11y ago
  But if you take a 2 hour train ride to Shijiazhuang, you'll get stares all day. :) And for those that don't know, it's not a small city (urban population: 2.7 million, metro population: 4.7 million). I had some young kids there tell me I was the first westerner they had ever seen.
  - yourapostasy 11y ago
    Not a small city by US/EU reckoning. There are 30+ cities in China with populations more than 2.7M in the urban area. That is an order of magnitude more than the US. The children in China grow up with a concept of scale that overshadows what we intuitively grasp in the US and EU (and most of the rest of the world, for that matter). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_China_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_China_by_popu... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by...
    - bzbarsky 11y ago
      Comparing the "urban area" numbers is a bit misleading because the structure of cities is so different in different places (even in the US, where for example Chicago officially annexed various suburbs over time while Boston did not). If you look at the metro area numbers, Shijiazhuang is 26th in China according to your first link, with about 4M in its metro area (assuming "Built-Up area" is the metro area, of course; it's hard to tell from this Wikipedia page). Tehre are 12 more cities with 3M+ in the built-up area. For the US there seem to be 10 urban areas that are at 4M or more (see <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_areas> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_urban_ar...). Obviously fewer than 26, but not an order of magnitude less. There are 14 urban areas with 3M or more people. More interesting would be to just flat-out compare list positions. #26 on the list of US cities by actual city population is Baltimore. On the urban area list it's San Antonio. Neither one is what one would consider small (nor large, of course).
      - 11y ago

morpheous 11y ago

This: "One guy told me "I will kill you", but then he told my girlfriend "Thats the only sentence I know in english and I don't know what does it mean"." ROFL. You made my day ! :)

PopsiclePete 11y ago

This reminds me of my time to the "Floating Markets" near Bangkok. Pure tourist trap. On one of the "islands", there's a group of Japanese (I think) tourists looking disinterested at various trinkets. My girlfriend and I instantly became the attraction. They approached us hurriedly, squeaking with excitement, took our pictures, had us pose for them, then they took turns posing with us, one by one or in groups while someone else was taking the picture and directing us. This went on for multiple rounds. It really, really made their day. To this day I'm not sure if they mistook us for celebrities or they were just excited to see white people in general. It was hilarious.